Vishal Arora / sify
New Delhi, Aug 22: The late Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan was not 91, but 100 years old , Padma Bhushan Pandit Debu Chaudhuri, eminent Sitar player, said in an interview with Sify.com.
“I believe Ustad Bismillah Khan sahib was nearly 100. After all, when he played before Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at the Red Fort in Delhi in 1947 when India gained independence from the British, he was around 37 years,” said the Sitar maestro.
He said Khan sahib's name was synonymous with shehnai and would remain among the most respected names in the history of Indian music.
“It is because of Ustad Bismillah Khan sahib that the shehnai, which is a folk instrument, has gained such widespread acceptance in classical music. And see, today one cannot think of beginning any programme or occasion without a shehnai,” he said.
“He was not only a great musician, but also a great human being. He lived a very simple life, despite being such a famous personality. I have always seen him in white ‘pajama’ and white ‘kurta’ of very old style,” Chaudhuri added.
Bismillah Khan laid to rest with military honours
UNI
Varanasi: Thousands bid an emotional farewell to shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan whose mortal remains were laid to rest at the Karbala-Fatamaan burial ground in Varanasi.
Men of the 1/11 Gorkha battalion lowered their muffled weapons as a mark of respect to the departed soul. The troops saluted the Bharat Ratna awardee by firing 36 blank rounds in the air even as buglers paid the Last Post.
Before the burial, a majlis was held at the grounds in which prayers were offered for the peace of the departed soul.
The burial, incidentally, took place under a neem tree just by the side of the place where Khan Saheb used to sit and play the shehnai during the 5th and 8th day of Moharram.
Earlier, in the evening, people had queued up all along the two-kilometre road through which he had gone to express his 'Aasu Ka Nazrana' by playing shehnai during the 5th and 8th day of Moharram.
The Ustad's foster daughter and classical vocalist Soma Ghosh was also present.